Louisiana man returns mom’s overdue library book 84 years later

(ABC NEWS)-A long overdue book finally made it back to a library in Louisiana this week — only 84 years after it was checked out, according to a library official.

The book, “Spoon River Anthology” by Edgar Lee Masters, was checked out in 1934 by a girl who was 11 years old at the time.

It was returned this week by the girl’s son, who wasn’t named, after he found the book while cleaning his parent’s home, according to a post on the library’s Facebook page.

“I guess he thought that he would just return it to its rightful owner,” Ivy Woodard, public relations executive at Shreve Memorial Library, told ABC News. “I’m pretty sure he was hoping that somebody else could get that book and enjoy whatever words were in it.”

When the book was first borrowed, the late fee for returning the book was 5 cents a day, according to Woodard.

“We still have that 5 cents today and I think that total would have come out to be somewhere around $1,500,” she said.

But she said that the library’s maximum fine today is only $3, and that the fee for returning this book would be waived.

“We found it very serendipitous that he would return the book in the first place after all those years,” Woodard said.

“That is very rare. We rarely have that happen. But I guess better late than never,” she said. “It speaks well of humanity to return something to the rightful owner.”